Data transfer system



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/NVE NTOR. 0A )VIEL GOLDEN AT TOR/VSH United States Patent O DATA TRANSFER SYSTEM Daniel Golden, Bronx, N.Y., assigner to Underwood Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application May 24, 1954, Serial No, 431,766

16 Claims. (Cl. 340-174) This invention relates to data handling, and more particularly to a data transfer system for transferring data from the storage unit of data processor to a high speed printer.

The processing of data in data processors may consist of computing, sorting and collating operations upon mixed numerical and alphabetic data. A typical example would be a magazine subscription billing operation wherein mixed numerical and alphabetic data such as the customers name, address, subscription date, payment date, expiration date, route, account number, and amount owing is processed.

This mixed data can best be handled by expressing the data as coded numbers. Thus, a data character representing a numerical digit, a letter of the alphabet or a symbol may be expressed as a coded number using the binary system of notation.

After the mixed data has been processed it is necessary to store the processed data preparatory to printing out the result of the processing operation. Information storage media such as magnetic tapes and perforated tapes have been widely used for storing coded information in the form of magnetized spots or perforations. 'The storage media is theoretically divided into a plurality of longitudinal channels or tracks corresponding in number to the number of bits in the code being used to represent a character of data (as for example a six digit binary code requires six channels), and also into a multitude of storage Zones each of which extends laterally across the storage media. Each storage zone is composed of a plurality of adjacent storage positions, one in each channel, each of which stores a bit of data expressed as the presence or absence of a given magnetic polarization or the presence or absence of a perforation. Each binary coded number stored in a storage zone of the storage media represents a character of data.

The processed data is generally stored in the storage media in groups of a fixed number of characters, hereinafter referred to as blocks of data, separated by spaces carrying no data. The arrangement of data within a block includes a predetermined number of successive groups of characters.

At the present time high speed printers, such as the presently available Eastman Kodak Printer, are capable of simultaneously printing a predetermined number of lines of data, corresponding to the predetermined number of successive groups of characters in a block of data, during each printing cycle. Thus, for example, if a block of data is composed of two hundred characters arranged into ve groups of forty characters, the printer will simultaneously print out tive lines of forty characters corresponding to the five groups of forty characters in the block of data.

Furthermore, a high speed printer of this type has certain characteristics such as, printing continuously, printing a predetermined number of characters at a time, and printing at a predetermined speed.

Hence, several problems arise in connection with the 2,905,930 Patented Sept. 22, 1959 ICC printing of data which is stored in serial block form in the storage unit of a data processor.

Firstly, since the data transmitted from the storage unit is transmitted in blocks separated by spaces containing no data, the data is transmitted in a discontinuous manner. Therefore, since the printer prints data continuously this data must be put into continuous form.

Secondly, since the data in each block occurs serially (that is, each group of characters to be printed follows the next), and since the printer prints in parallel (that Vpis, a plurality of characters at a time), the form of the data must be changed from a serial to a parallel arrangement.

Thirdly, since the rate at which the data is read from the storage unit may be different from that at which the printer prints, it may require data rate converison.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a transfer system for transferring data in digital form from the storage unit of a data processor to a high speed printer.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system for readily converting data in one form and at one rate to a second form at a different rate.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a system for arranging data while it is being transferred from one storage unit to another storage unit.

A further object of the invention is to provide apparatus for storing data in a predetermined order and reading out the stored data in a different predetermined order.

A still further object of the invention is to selectively store data in a predetermined arrangement such that it may read out in proper sequence.

In accordance with the present invention a data transfer system is provided for transferring serial blocks of data, each block consisting of a predetermined number of successive groups of characters, from the storage unit of a data processor to a high speed printer which prints each group of characters simultaneously and in parallel.

More particularly, the data transfer system includes: a main recirculation storage for storing blocks of data utilizing a magnetic storage drum as the main component; a first converter for converting parallel coded character signals read at one rate from the storage unit of the data processor to serial coded character signals at the drum rate for storing in the main recirculation storage; an intermediate ystorage device for intermediately storing the serial coded character signals until the proper storing spaces in the main recirculation storage appears, the groups of characters in each block of data being sequentially transferred from the intermediate storage device and stored in a predetermined sequence in the main recirculation storage such that the odd character signals of each group of characters are sequentially stored in increasing order in one portion of the main recirculation storage while the even character signals of each group of characters are sequentially stored in increasing order in the remaining portion of the main recirculation storage; a second converter responsive to each group of characters simultaneously and in parallel for converting the serial coded character signals in each group of data to parallel coded character signals; and a sampling control means associated with the second converter for simultaneously sampling each group of characters received by the second converter in a predetermined sequence at the printer rate such that the individual parallel coded character signals in each group of data are simultaneously sampled in increasing numerical order and transmitted to the printer.

The invention, including other objects, features and advantages, will be best understood by referring now to the detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: 

